Flour packing



C. F. SPARKS FLOUR PACKING Original Filed Nov. 1, 1920 11v VENTOR CHARLES F 5P/1AK5 A TTORNE Y Patented Feb. 10, I925.

Ul'l? STTES CHARLES F. SPARKS, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI,

FLOUR PACKING.

Application filed November 1, 1920, Serial No. 420,964. Renewed December 1924.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. SPARKS, a, citizen of the United-States, residing in the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, 5 have invented new and useful Improvements in Flour Packing, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to flour packing. Ihe apparatus. generally employed for this purpose includesja substantially conical receiver or holder for the flour which termi nates. in a downwardly extending cylindrical spout. Within this spout means is provided for forcing the flour downward-1y at the 15 mouth or lower endof the spout, so that it passes'intothe bag which is to be filled. hen the filling operation commences, the bag: completely telescopes the lower end of the spout, being-held inthis position by '20 a counter-weighted platform; upon which the bottom of the bag rests. As the flour is forced down into the bag the platform yields and permits the bag to descend under the downward pressure of the flour passing into the bottom of the bag from the delivery mouth-of the spout. Qne of the objections to this method arises from the. fact that if the apparatus is operated at a high speed, flour 1 dust will be emitted from the mouth of the'bag,

The general object of the present invention-is to overcome this difficulty and to pro .vide asimple method and apparatus for packing the hour at an increased speed,

.35; but without raising flour dust, that is to say, accordingt-o-my apparatus and method I increase the capacity of a given flour packer and at the-same time avoid produc ing flour dust in theatmosphere around the ban.

' Further objects of the invention will appear hereinafter. J

The invention consists in the novel methodand novel apparatusto be described hereinafter and particularly set forth in the claims.

In; thedrawing,

Figure 1 is afront-elevation-of a common forn of apparatus, the'cent'ral portionlof' the; same being shown in vertical section, and illustrating my novel apparatus by meansof which mynovel method may be practiced and Figure-Qjis a side elevation of the upper portion of the guide way showingthe plat-2 form broken away and particularly illustrating the means for counter-weighting the platform.

In practicing my invention I provide any suitable means for supporting the bag and I provide means for compressing the flour before or at the time that the flour is delivered into the bag. I prefer to compress the flour to such an extent that its volume will be about forty or fifty per cent of its normal volume when not under pressure. The effect of this is that the velocity of accumulation of the flour in. the bag is greatly increased and at the same time, due to the compressed condition of the flour, it has very little tendency to take the form of dust issuing from the mouth of the bag. Any suitable means may be provided for compressing the flour. In the present embodiment of the apparatus I simply provide a substantially cylindrical filling spout 1' which extends down from afiXed substantially conical upper portion or hopper 2. I provide means within the delivery spout 1 for compressing the flour which falls from above into the hopper 2. For this purpose I prefer to provide a feedscrew, or conveyor, the blade 3 of'which is carried on a vertical shaft 4 disposed on the central axis of the tube or spout 1. The lower portion of the screw, preferably comprising one or two turns of the blade 3, is constructed of relatively low pitch as compared with the upper portion of the screw. The effect of this is that a relatively large quantity of flour pass ing into the screw at each revolution is compressed at the lowerpart of the spout into substantially half the volume that it had at the: point where it entered the screw. For example, I prefer to give the upperportion of the screw approximately a pitch of 11; at its lower portion the screw gradually decreases in pitch until its pitch is approximately 2 to i, that is to say, a screw 4 inches in diameter would have a" pitch of 2 inches. In this way a very considerable compression in the flour takes place as it passes into the delivery mouth-or lower end of the spout 1. I employ the usual apparatus for holding the bag 5 tele scoped over the spout when the operation commences. For this purpose the bottom of the bag may rest upona vertically movable platform or shelf 6 having sidebars 7 sliding on; suitabl guide posts 8; .8; These posts extend up from the floor 9. The platform 6 is preferably counter-balanced by means of counter-weights 1.0 supported each by a cord 11 which runs over a sheave 12 (see Figure These sheaves are carried on a horizontal shaft 13.. The counterweights are slightly heavier than the platform with a full bag of flour upon it, and hence while the bag is being filled it will be yieldingly supported against the downward pressurei of the flour which is being 'iforced into the bag. It should be understood that in practicing my invention I do not limit myself in any way to such apparatus as this in which the platform yields, for obviously if desired the platform'could be fixed and the spout and conveyor mounted to move upwardly in a well known manner. In operating the apparatus the attendant telescopes a bag 5 over the lower end of the spout and pulls it up as far as possible, at the same time permitting the platform 6 to ascend to the limit of its upward movement. As the shaft 4 rotates in the direction of the arrow indicated in Figure 1, the upper end of the blade revolves in the lower portion of the conical hopper 2 and this forces the flour downward ly into the filling spout 1. This flour is caused toprogress downwardly by the. constant entrance of flour into the upper part of the spout, andas the flour recedes toward. the lower portidn of the spout it is, compressed into the relatively small space between the successive turns of the blade where the. pitch is lower. Hence the flour is de livered into the bag in a relatively com pressed state with the incidental advantages referred to above, that is to say, the flour may bepushed into the bags with greater rapidity because the flour pushed into the bag weighs more than if it had not been compressed; and furthermore, the compressed state of the flour tends to prevent its being emitted in dust form'through the mouth of the bag.

as the Hour passes into the container or bag, of course a slight expansion of the flour takes place, but the flour is maintained in a tight y packed state in the bag by the underface or dr' ing side of the lower end of the screw as it revolves.

I am aware that fiour packing apparatus has been used which employs a feed screw O )l1tll1g in conjunction with a feed hopper and spout. In one type of such apparatus the upper portion of the feed screw is of tapered form so as to fit closely to the interior of a conical hopper. lVhen an apparatus is constructed in that way the result is that a large amount of compression occurs in the hopper, and the amount of this compression depends largely upon the height of the flour within the hopper. My invention is distinguished by the fact that substantially all the compression of the flour occurs within the cylindrical spout. That is to say, the spout receives the flour in a substan- *tially uncompressed state and hence the degree of compression of the flour as delivered from the lower end of the spout is uniform andwloes not depend upon the level of the flour in the hopper or the speed at which flour is being fed into the hopper. In other words, my compressing device produces a uniform amount of compression and this compression occurs within the spout. In one aspect my compressing device may be considered to comprise a shaft extending down intoa bottomless cylindrical spout from the hopper, the upper end of the spout receiving uncompressed flour, the shaft having upper convolutions which force the flour down into the spout and having lower convolutions ofless pitch at the bottom of the spout which operate to deliver all the flour at a substantially uniform pressure from the lower end of the spout.

It is understood that the embodiment of the invention described herein is only one of the many embodiments my invention may take, and I do not wish to be limited in the practice of my invention nor in my claims, to the particular embodiment setforth.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is w 1. In a flour packer, the combination of a hopper having a bottomless cylindrical feed ing spout below the same to extend into the bag to be filled, rotatable feed screw of uniform diameter having its upper end located in the lower portion of said hopper and extending down into the spout for moving the flour toward the lower end thereof, said hopper operating to deliver the hour in a substantially uncompressed state to the upper end of the spout, the diameter of said screw being substantially the same as that of the spout, and the lowerportion thereof beingof lower pitch than the upper portion,

thereby producing a substantially uniform compression in all the flour delivered from the lower end of the spout.

2. In a flour packer, the combination of a hopper having a bottomless cylindrical feeding spout below the same to extend into the bag to b filled, a rotatable feed screw of substantially the diameter of said spout and of smaller diameter than the hopper so as to feed the flour downwardly uncompressed" into the lower portion of the hopper, the feed screw being of uniform diameter and extending from a point within the hopper down into the spout for moving the flour toward the lower end thereof, the lower portion of said screw being of lower pitch than the upper portion, thereby producing a substantially uniform compression in all th flour delivered from the lower end of the spout.

In a flour packer, the combination of a spout extends downwardly, said feed-screw bottomless cylindrical filling spout to extend having a blade extending through the spout into the bag to be filled a rotatable feedand into the hopper and having a decreased 10 screw of uniform diameter extending do-Wn pitch at its lower end.

5 into the spout for moving the flour toward In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set the lower end thereof, a hopper of larger my hand. diameter than the spout and from which the CHARLES F. SPARKS. 

